Episode 15: Japanese Jolts Part 2 – Frozen Fear
After the encounter with the incomplete Dark Master, the Z-Team was pretty much shaken. Petrified from fright at the sight of their greatest enemy and having their leader incapacitated and poisoned, it was a matter of time before they lose him. They'd have to find an herb mentioned by the Dark Master to save Zack, but they didn't even know what to look for. Both Minnie and Moana both used their healing spells in an attempt to cure him, but it didn't do much good, it only healed his injuries, but not the poison.
The Kitsune, seeing everything turned away and walked forward a few paces. At first everyone thought the creature was abandoning them, but then she turned her head to them, as if she was beckoning the team to follow her. Hoisting the unconscious Zack onto Simba, the group followed the Kitsune through the woods, a bit of a trek until they reached a surprising sight, a traditional Japanese house in the middle of the woods with a light on inside. The Kitsune pawed at the door, and then waited for a bit, footsteps were heard, then a door opened revealing a middle-aged man in a yukata with his head shaved and a bit of a beard.
"Ah, the Kitsune has brought some company…..wait is that my star pupil Zack Burner? What's he doing here?" the man asked.
"Please help us! He's our leader…..we were hunting monsters when we encountered the Dark Master, he knocked him out with his powers and then poisoned him with a larger centipede." Begged Elsa.
"Say no more my friends, bring him inside." The old man calmly replied, the Team complied without complaint even bringing in the newly tamed Kitsune and Baku. Simba laid Zack on the floor in the living room area. The man checked him over. "Did you see what type of centipede that bit him?"
"It was a reddish-brown color and it was about 3 feet in length" replied Donald, the man became pale.
"I was afraid of that, that's a fledgling Omukade, the one that's not only poisonous, but can grow to the size of mountains!" Everyone was horrified by the sound of that Mickey scrolled through the pages of the guidebook, found the page, and then held it up, the man pointed it out. "Yes that's the one"
"The Dark Master mentioned an herb that can save Zack, what is it and where is it? We must know!" Simba beseeched.
"There's the herb Shiso which grows up in he mountains…." the man grabbed a book off his side table, opened it up and then showed them the photo of the herb, it resembled a mint leaf, green with some jagged edges.
"The same Dark Master mentioned he recently unleashed the Yuki-Onna through his followers, which is lurking up somewhere in the mountains" said Mulan, just hearing that made the man even paler.
"This is a lot worse than I thought…..." the man said solemnly. "Some of you will have to go fetch the herb, it's at the height of Mount Atago, the rest of you will have to watch over Zack, he needs all the support, after all he's been your leader for quite a while hasn't he?" The rest of Zack's team shook their head solemnly, for Zack was an interesting fellow despite his eccentricities, perhaps there was a lot more to him than what meets the eye. Simba and Nala approached the man first.
"At first he caught us thinking we were appropriate prisoners for something twisted, none of us believed his thoughts when he put us through some sort of macabre audition, but little by little we began to trust him." said Simba.
"I second that, and it would seem that he has his reasons for doing his strange things" Nala added, Aladdin and Jasmine approached next.
"He's a very interesting fellow chock full of secrets we don't know about, and he's done a good job guiding us in our battle against the forces of darkness." said Aladdin.
"Zack is a true leader to us he's knowledgeable and has the right amount of courage, compassion, and commitment required of a leader" Jasmine added, the man smiled, willing to help out after hearing their stories.
"I'm willing to help you all out, I'm Master Raito, the one who taught Zack the skills he needs to fight against the darkness, and perhaps I could train my secrets to you all, but for now we need to heal your leader. Some of you must go fetch the herb, the rest must stay behind in case this Yuki-Onna comes around, she is a deadly Yokai that can freeze you to death and drain your life force just by kissing you." The team's eyes widened with fright at the sound of that. "You're going to need to take along the Kitsune, she will guide you to the herb."
"Since Zack is incapacitated, I must lead, that's what he would want..." replied Elsa, stepping forward, followed by Simba, Nala, Elsa, Mulan, Goofy, and Donald, all agreeing to embark on the mission to retrieve the herb. Everyone else decided to stay behind, knowing this monster, the Yuki-Onna was not one to take lightly, sensing it was a very crafty, ruthless stalker. Without further delay, the group of seven, counting the Kitsune, left the house to search for the herb on Mount Atago.
The Kitsune led the group with Elsa maintaining temporary leadership of her small group up the slope of Mount Atago. A feeling of cold was starting to develop in the air of the woods all around them, followed by a sense of dread, the Yuki-Onna could be lurking anywhere on a dark, cold night. They weren't up a mile up when it started to snow, which meant finding the herb would be even more challenging.
With each passing second, the snowfall's rate increased, the group feared that there would be a blizzard up the mountain before they would have any chance of finding the Shiso. In the distance Goofy spotted something coming towards them, a white humanoid figure wearing a kimono. It approached the group at a rapid pace, leaving no snow prints behind as she walked towards them, Goofy alerted Donald to the being's presence, not taking any chances, they immediately guessed it was the Yuki-Onna. Donald pointed his spear at her and shouted "Lightning Strike!" emitting a bolt of lightning, just before the bolt made contact, the figure vanished.
"Good work Donald, but let's all be on our guard, I have a feeling she'll be back..." said Elsa with a tinge of fear in her voice, the rest nodded as the Kitsune continued to lead them up the trail, even through a traditional wooden gate up the steps. The snow was coming down harder and harder by the minute, hope for finding the Shiso was getting dimmer. In the distance up ahead, there was a small little wooden shed-like building, a rest area for walkers, lit up by two peony lanterns. Just then, when the group approached, out from the opening of the rest area, a figure in the form of a female with white skin and kimono came out and went for Donald, grabbed him and started breathing an ice cold breath on him. The Kitsune barked a few times to divert the Yuki-Onna, which then yelped and some ghostly illusions of fire appeared around the Kitsune causing the Yuki-Onna to vanish again.
"Gawrsh, Donald are you alright?" asked Goofy trying to calm his shaken friend having just had a brush with death,
"I-I-I'm a-a-a-lri-i-i-ght!" replied Donald shivering and afraid of the strange female creature that almost claimed him.
"We'd better be more on our guard!" added Simba.
"Then we'd better hurry up and find that herb!" finished Nala.
Meanwhile back at Raito's house, Zack was being watched over by many even having some guarding the door in case the Yuki-Onna showed up. He began to grunt a bit, though still not awake and in pain from the poison still coursing through his body. Minnie noticing this, took out of her purse a handkerchief to wipe the sweat away from his forehead.
"Hang in there Zack, help is coming." Minnie said compassionately.
"Hope my friends are alright, please be careful" Mickey said, looking out the window, up at the snow covered Mount Atago.
Back on the mountain, the trek was getting more difficult for the group, having two run-ins with the Yuki-Onna. The Kitsune led the group around a bend up the mountain, which led them to an area with a small waterfall, at the base were some small stone columns encrypted with Japanese symbols. The Kitsune picked up a scent and then hastened, the group followed it. There it was, standing next to one of the columns, partially covered by the snow, was the Shiso. Not wasting any time, Mulan cut it off from the ground with her sword and grabbed it. Without any further delays the group proceeded down the mountain, just as the snowfall picked up the pace.
"Too bad we can't shadow port we'd be back in a flash!" complained Donald.
"Only Zack can do that, but would you really want to learn the dark arts that would consume your soul?" asked Elsa.
"Er…...maybe not, but we still need to hurry!"
The group had to be careful coming down, the snow made the descent a bit slippery, which gave Elsa an idea. Using her ice magic, she created an icy slope down the mountain where it was clear and then jumped ahead, the group followed her down, the ride was exhilarating, and more econimical as well. They just managed to reach the bottom, they could barely contain their brief joy. But that was short lived as there was the Yuki-Onna, still bent on trying to claim their lives. Elsa aimed her ice magic at the being's legs, but it did no good as the Yuki-Onna passed through her attempted ice restraints and grabbed Goofy by the collar, who held up his shield to block her icy breath, but it was doing him no good either, he felt the handle on his shield start to get to unbearable cold temperatures, and he felt the breath come around ice crystals started forming on his face. Just then the Kitsune barked and then yelped, more illusions of flames emitted out of the Kitsune's body which made the Yuki-Onna vanish.
"Illusions can only hold her off for so long, let's get this herb over to Zack and Master Raito!" ordered Mulan, the others nodded. Without delaying any further the group raced over the Master Raito's house, everyone else was relieved that they were alright though shaken from the run-ins with the Yuki-Onna. Not delaying a minute or second, Master Raito got to work grinding up the herb and then administered the antidote into Zack's mouth.
"Now we must wait a while for the herb to work, but be on your guard, I have a feeling that the Yuki-Onna might be around, stay alert all of you!" cautioned Master Raito. While the rest watched over Zack, which seemed like an hour, Raito attended the fire, it was struggling a bit to stay perked up. Suddenly, the door swung open unleashing some cold wind, which immediately snuffed out the fire. There coming through the doorway was the Yuki-Onna, slowly advancing on Master Raito, her black eyes gleamed as she advanced on him, slowly starting to breath her icy breath, causing some ice crystals to develop on him. Mushu seeing this stepped forward and shouted, "Hey ice lady! Come get a cooking!" and attempted to breath some fire on her, but could only get a few sparks out. The Yuki-Onna grabbed Mushu and breathed on him a bit, freezing him in ice up to his waist and then tossed him aside chattering and helpless. She then peered at the group who was backed off with Zack right behind them, her black eyes squinted and smiled a grin of malice, her teeth looked like icicles, it seemed like the end was near for the Z-Team. Just as she was about to breath, Zack came to then grasped his sword, and stood up, pointing his blade at the Yuki-Onna from behind his remaining teammates and shouted, "Flame Blade!" emitting a stream of fire at the sinister snow woman, it happened in the blink of an eye, the flames struck the Yuki-Onna, and she was set ablaze, screaming as she melted onto the floor, defeated. Zack came over and using his fire magic, melted Mushu out of his half ice prison and warmed up master Raito.
The remaining Z-Team members turned to their recovered leader, their fear now averted, they turned to smiles and tears of joy, ran to hug him.
"I thought we lost you Zack, you don't know how much you mean to us!" sniffed Elsa, relieved.
"Takes more than poison to defeat the Burner!" smiled Zack, who then turned to his mentor. "Master Raito! It's great to see you again!" he bowed to him, Raito bowed back.
"Welcome back Zack, I see your friends looked after you well, perhaps they would like some of my training?" The Z-Team smiled and nodded.
"We could sure do with some training, who knows when we'll need it to further combat the forces of darkness…." Mickey agreed.
To be continued….